Tips vs Mortars and Scout Cars

I'm new to the community so I will start by saying hello . I've been playing COH since its inception and just plain love the series.

In order to make the transition into COH2 I've been practising vs the A.I. a lot - yes I know not the greatest way to do it but one which I thought would be least embarrassing......until now

So I seem to have a problem with the A.I. (Ostheer) on Hard diff spamming mortars (counter maxims), scout cars (need heavy micro to be dealt with), MGs (pin to win) and grenadiers (clean-up). This results in cutting off my resources while slowly advancing like cancer.

Any tip on how to specifically counter them with T1 - T2 soviet units while not sacrificing resources to delay my advance to T3?

Any tips on how to micro & or what to build would be appreciated

I've lurked enough on here to establish that the common soviet starting strat is the Engi / Conscript to T-xx tanks.

Cheers,
Fox

Play vs people.

Minor note on terminology: you can't really "spam" four different units (mortars, scout cars, MGs, grens). That's just an army composition.

Your (AI) opponent has made a considerable investment into early game units, both in terms of manpower and fuel. On the strategy-level, I'd say play defensively (hold 50% of the map, or at least your fuel), build a fuel depot and pump out a T-70 ASAP. That will easily crush the entire opposing army, and you can follow up with T-34 against his T3 vehicles. Straight up Maxim spam should easily be able to hold him off if you use them defensively and to support each other. Maxims kill scout cars pretty fast.

Tactically, make sure to keep moving your MGs to prevent them from being bombarded. If I think a mortar is nearby, I immediately pick up and move the MG after suppressing an enemy squad, then redeploy.

edit: I'll add that I'd keep the # of Conscript squads low, somewhere between zero to two. Against that build you'll likely bleed manpower more and not do anything constructive.

Minor note on terminology: you can't really "spam" four different units (mortars, scout cars, MGs, grens). That's just an army composition.

Noted, thanks.

Your (AI) opponent has made a considerable investment into early game units, both in terms of manpower and fuel. On the strategy-level, I'd say play defensively (hold 50% of the map, or at least your fuel), build a fuel depot and pump out a T-70 ASAP. That will easily crush the entire opposing army, and you can follow up with T-34 against his T3 vehicles. Straight up Maxim spam should easily be able to hold him off if you use them defensively and to support each other. Maxims kill scout cars pretty fast.

Should I avoid placing them in structures then? I tend to lazy out and plunk them into whatever house is nearby...

Tactically, make sure to keep moving your MGs to prevent them from being bombarded. If I think a mortar is nearby, I immediately pick up and move the MG after suppressing an enemy squad, then redeploy.

I like your blog with all the tips and tricks, yeah I tried the Maxim Su85 combo but it seemed to falter when faced with panzer grenadiers and panzers. Needed more micro tbh, and better positioning on my part.

edit: I'll add that I'd keep the # of Conscript squads low, somewhere between zero to two. Against that build you'll likely bleed manpower more and not do anything constructive.

What doctrine would you go with? I'm guessing HTD would be useless.


Thank you so much for the reply and advice.

Should I avoid placing them in structures then? I tend to lazy out and plunk them into whatever house is nearby...

Absolutely. Only place in a structure if it's in an immediately strategically useful spot (for example, covering your flank while you advance your main army). Don't just leave it covering an attack route that has no value to you at the moment.

If you read my tips you might have seen this one explaining why it's so important to bring MGs (and your whole army in general) along. They're actually more vulnerable in a building alone than they are with your army.

I like your blog with all the tips and tricks, yeah I tried the Maxim Su85 combo but it seemed to falter when faced with panzer grenadiers and panzers. Needed more micro tbh, and better positioning on my part.

The build order of your opponent is also very important. I've played with the AI only a little bit (mostly to get the costs of units and abilities) but if i recall correctly, they tend to aggressively cap.

You said they get mortars, scout cars, PGs and grens.

These two builds are dramatically different:
1. pioneer, pg, pg, scout car, gren, gren, mortar
2. pioneer, gren, gren, mortar, pg, pg, scout car

Despite having the same unit composition, you'd play VERY differently.

#1 would mean you should cap aggressively. Head to cutoff points (especially for their fuel) and force early fights. I would also use a triple conscript opening against that vs. Maxims. You'll have a dominating opening before his PGs hit the field, then if you blob around you'll always have the advantage. Build fuel depot, head to T3 so you can get T34s to finish the game early.

#2 The maxim opening will be fine. Play defensive, take "your" 50% and head to T4 if you think they're going P4s.

I'm not saying that the AI is necessarily doing either one of those, but just giving you an example of how they differ.

You can use the post game build order tab to check what they built and in what order, and use that to prepare for your next game.

What doctrine would you go with? I'm guessing HTD would be useless.

Guards Motors for maxim spam. Guards rifle for conscripts (PPSh will let your conscripts actually fight PGs without getting wrecked too hard).

Adder you are awesome, thank you so much for the help and tips.

Yes absolutely I see the difference between the builds, I will definitely check the post build order and plan accordingly.

I'm also reading through your blog some more, lots and lots of helpful tips on there it's fantastic.